Strings
by LeaXIII
Summary: Alex couldn't deny a faint surge of relief at the realization that Jay would be so bold as to break into his apartment, however stupidly he had gone about it. It gave him an excuse to finally cut the ties for good.


Alex couldn't deny a faint surge of relief at the realization that Jay would be so bold as to break into his apartment, however stupidly he had gone about it.

It gave him an excuse to finally cut the ties for good.

He would've tried sooner, really, if it had been possible. After his last encounter with _it_, he'd done his best to isolate himself. He lied to Jessica to ensure that she wouldn't get sucked into all of this. He hadn't spoken to any of the friends or family he'd left behind years ago.

And he stopped searching for Amy. After all, she was better off without him, wherever she was. Alex knew by now that he had become an unstable tempest of danger, pulling in anyone who ventured too close, dragging them all down to the depths, never to be seen again.

But then there was Jay. Stupid, selfless Jay. The moron just didn't know when to call it quits. Most people would probably take a hint after almost three straight months of no phone calls and consistently ignored voice-mails, but no, Jay still persisted, throwing out a lifeline that he didn't realize was wrapped around his own neck.

Of course Alex was aware of Jay following him the past few months; the guy wasn't exactly the world's greatest private investigator, if the "entries" on Youtube were any indication.

So Alex was rather unsurprised to find Jay hiding in his closet one night.

He wasn't expecting the other guest that Jay had unwittingly brought with him.

* * *

It didn't take long for Alex to find Jay's car in a parking lot only a few blocks away. As he approached the driver's side, he saw Jay slumped against the steering wheel, and for a brief moment wondered if he was hurt.

Alex tapped on the window, causing Jay to flinch slightly and lift his head. Alex's fear dissolved into renewed anger, and he motioned for Jay to get out of the car.

As Jay opened the door, Alex had to stop himself from punching him as a new wave of rage surged through him, this time at the remembrance of how idiotic Jay's "plan" had been.

"What is _wrong_ with you, huh?" Alex punctuated his words with a shove. "Breaking into my apartment? What are you _thinking_?"

"Alex, calm down!" Jay said, quietly, as if he was afraid that someone was listening. "I had a good reason..."

"And what would that be, huh?"

Jay turned away, his expression changing to something like embarrassment. "I...I had a hunch."

"A _hunch_?" Alex repeated incredulously. "_Oh_, a hunch!" _If you're gonna resort to breaking and entering over something as stupid as a hunch, _at least_ do it _smarter_! _"What did you expect to find, huh?" He held up the tape Jay had tried to steal. "This? You thought that some tape, laying on my desk was gonna be the answer to all of your questions?"

Jay looked down. "I don't know. Maybe," he said quietly.

"You don't even know what's on this tape, do you?" Alex realized as soon as the words were out of his mouth that mocking Jay with the tape was probably a bad idea; it would only make him even more determined to find out the truth.

Biting back a curse, Alex walked away, seething, clenching his left hand into a tight fist. He considered getting in his car and leaving, but instantly knew that it wouldn't be enough; he needed an effective way to tell Jay to fuck off, a way to actually make him listen and obey and never think about any of this again.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, he crossed his arms and leaned back against his car, staring down at the ground as Jay approached him.

"How'd you get out of your apartment –"

"You know Jay, I brought you out here because I thought you could help," Alex interrupted. "But you've done _nothing_ but make everything worse."

Alex watched Jay turn away, and was almost surprised when he actually spoke up rather than just apologizing.

"Well, you know what? You never really gave me a whole lot to go on. I've just been wandering around, waiting on you to call. That's not really a good way to speed up the process, is it?"

Jay really had changed. He wasn't that shy, quiet guy he used to be.

And it was Alex's fault.

"I thought I was supposed to have come out here to help you find Amy..."

Alex couldn't ignore the stab of pain in his chest at the mention of her name. He had to stop himself from placing a hand on his pocket to feel the edges of the folded up picture.

"But with the way you've been acting recently, it's...I'm thinking the exact opposite."

Alex managed to keep himself from going straight for Jay's throat, instead opting for shoving the latter away as he spoke furiously, barely even aware of the words tumbling past his lips. He could only hear the guilt buzzing in his head. He still had no idea what had happened to Amy. He would probably never know. He just had to hope that maybe she was still out there somewhere, living a normal life, with no memory of Alex or _it_. He tried not to consider the very real possibility that she could be dead. Or "gone".

No matter what had happened to her, it was all his fault.

No, he couldn't let that happen anymore. Not to anyone else.

Not even to the idiot standing in front of him...

"I wanted to help you, Alex! But I have spent three months doing almost _nothing_. That is _your_ fault, _not _mine."

...Especially not to him. Jay really had tried to help, hadn't he? Alex had pulled him back in, and rather than trying to move on and forget all this, like he'd apparently been planning, Jay had dropped everything to come to his side, a dog that couldn't sense that its human was an asshole.

Now Alex had to kick him, get rid of him.

"How am I supposed to trust you to do _anything_ when you're pulling stunts like this?"

"I have still done _so _much more than you have, Alex."

"Oh, you think you're making such a huge difference?" _Honestly, what good did sharing those tapes with the world really accomplish, anyway?_

"Yeah, I do." Jay replied, although his unsure expression didn't match his words.

"Well, you can do it by yourself. Because I'm done helping you." Alex began to walk back to his car, ignoring Jay's angry replies.

_Hopefully, that'll be enough. He doesn't have any leads anymore, except maybe Rosswood Park, and he'd be crazy to go there. Maybe now, he'll give up. _

"Give me Jessica's phone number," Jay said suddenly, walking briskly to catch up with Alex.

Alex stopped dead in his tracks, staring back at Jay. _Do you seriously have no brains at all? What the hell good would contacting Jessica do? _

"No. I'm done helping you." _I'm done getting anyone else involved in this._

It took Alex a moment to react when Jay suddenly snatched his keys and ran back towards his own car. That instant of surprise was enough to keep Alex from catching up to Jay before he had thrown the keys into the driver's seat and shut the door.

"Sorry, it's locked," Jay said with a smirk as Alex tried unsuccessfully to open the door. "Guess you can't get your keys." Alex turned toward Jay, fighting a split-second urge to grab the camera and throw it through the car's window. "Unless you give me the phone number."

Alex took one seething step toward Jay. He could see himself easily overpowering the smaller man, wrestling him to the ground, taking away _his_ keys to get his own back, so he could drive far away and never return.

He would end up hurting Jay, and Jay wouldn't forgive him; however, the thought barely stirred even the slightest hint of guilt in Alex. It didn't matter. He _needed _Jay to hate him. If Jay could just hate enough to never want to see Alex again...then it would be worth it. Much better than the alternative.

Tensing, Alex began to raise his fist, ready to punch that stupid camera out of Jay's hand, when his arm was suddenly no longer his own. He clenched his jaw against the freakish sensation of a dozen strings attached to him abruptly snapping taut, locking his joints firmly in place before slowly starting to move his left hand.

Alex tried to squeeze his eyes shut – he just needed to block everything out, and then he'd wake up, he had to wake up, because this wasn't really happening, this was just another nightmare, _please don't let this be happening, no please no not now not here not again_ – but he found that even his eyelids would not obey him.

He could see no physical strings. Whatever was jerking him around like a marionette was either invisible, or it was all in his head.

Either possibility was terrifying. And both had the same explanation.

_It _was here. Somewhere.

Jay hadn't moved an inch. Camera in hand, he was still just staring up at Alex defiantly, expectantly, phone in hand, blissfully unaware of the danger he was in as Alex's suddenly emotionless voice recited Jessica's phone number.

"What are you doing?" Alex asked as Jay held his phone to his ear.

"Making sure you gave me the right number," Jay replied, still just as oblivious as ever. "I'm not just gonna take that and leave. I'm not that stupid."

Alex's hand twitched; he had to stop Jay, just snatch the phone out of his hand and smash it on the cold concrete –

His heart sank as he heard Jessica's voice-mail message start to play. He'd been so close. So close to getting out of this tangle, severing all the connections, one by one, but now Jessica would be dragged into this as well. All because of Jay's stupidity.

It _was_ Jay's fault, right? It had to be. Not Alex's, _no no no don't think about that. _

Alex struggled to breathe against the ice forming in his chest as Jay unlocked his car door and threw Alex's keys on the ground, appearing rather proud of himself, surely celebrating his imagined victory. Mechanically, Alex picked up the keys and began to walk toward his car.

_Say something, anything, warn him, make him stop all this, make him forget Jessica, make him leave and never come back and never want to see me again, please just let me say even one thing – _

Alex's jaw remained tightly clenched. He got into his car and shut the door.

* * *

The gun was heavy in Alex's jacket pocket, but he barely noticed it against the weight pressing down on his shoulders.

It was the burden of everyone he'd gotten into this mess, all those who were gone, all the corpses piling up, a burden that got heavier and heavier each time he was no longer in control.

He waited for the weight to crush him as he drove to Rosswood Park.

Jay and Jessica were loose ends, frayed and dangerous. He couldn't afford to fight his way out of another tangle; no, _it_ would never allow that.

So he would solve this problem, end this before it could get any worse. Throw two more corpses on the pile.

Maybe then, the strings pulling Alex would snap, and he could finally fall.

Maybe then, he would be free.


End file.
